"A nation without a past is a lost nation,
and a people without a past is a people without a soul."
Sir Seretse Khama, 1921 - 1980,
first President of the Republic of Botswana.
The Difaqane wars
The Difaqane wars were a devastating wave of tribal wars that swept across Botswana and much of southern Africa in the early 1800s. By the early 19th century, populations in southern Africa had expanded to such a point that most fertile land was occupied. During the 1700s, the slave and ivory trades increased rapidly in southeastern Africa - minor kings were attacking their neighbours and selling their captives to slave traders. Along the Orange River, white bandits began to terrorize people living in the east.
Nguni peoples (Bantu-speaking peoples including the Zulus and Xhosas) began to form themselves into stronger units to resist these pressures. In 1816 King Shaka seized control of the Zulu chiefdom, and, by forcefully incorporating other smaller tribes, rapidly formed a powerful, war-like nation. Conquered peoples, began to move northwestwards in vast numbers (80,000 - 100,000) destroying everything in their path.
About 1817 Mosilikatze, the founder of the Matabele nation, fleeing from the wrath of Chaka, the Zulu king, began his career of conquest, during which he ravaged a great part of Bechuanaland and enrolled large numbers of Bechuana in his armies. Eventually the Matabele settled to the north~east in the country which afterwards bore their name.
Towards the end of the Difaqane wars, tribes slowly began to re-establish themselves. The chiefs, in their efforts to reconstruct, began to exchange ivory and skins for guns with European, Griqua and Rolong traders, who began to infiltrate the African interior at that time.
Post-colonial histories such as Tlou and Campbell’s History of Botswana and Ramsay, Morton and Mgadla’s Building a Nation, have divided Bakgalagadi into five sub-groupings: Bakgwatlheng, Babolangwe, Bangologa, Baphaleng and Bashaga. But, this division is at best a simplification. For example communities commonly grouped as Bangologa have a rich variety of local sub-identities, e.g. Baeharu (Baehadu) and their offshoot Baehazwana (Baehatshwana), Bapebana, Bakgala, Batyhaga (Batlhaga), Bakgwatlheng (Bakhwatheng), Barolong (Barholong), Bashiwana, Baselebe, Batlharo (Batharo).
Only some of the above groups claim descent from a founder patriarch named Mongologa, whose sons are said to have included Moeharu, Motyhaga, Mpebana, Moselebe, Moriti, and Mokwatheng. The name Mongologa has been associated with the verb go ngaloga, which may be translated as “to become disobedient, stubborn or delinquent.” This meaning is connected in oral traditions to a Morolong prince who became known as “Mongologa” after he unsuccessfully tried to usurp bogosi from his senior brother. Expelled for his ambition, Mongologa fled to Hukuntsi, from where he was able to establish his paramountcy over other local Shekgalagari communities, who thereafter were also known as Bangologa.
Alternatively Tjako Mpulabusi, in Barile, The Peopling of Botswana: vol. II, traces the name to an apparently more archaic translation of verb go ngaloga as “to stampede” in the context of a dismissive Serolong expression “sa ba gase gosia ke go ngaloga”. At least in the past Mongologa’s followers have also been referred to as Bashaga (Basaga), a name that is pejoratively associated with bothanka/botlhanka or servitude. Bashaga has, in this respect, also been used as a label for other groups such as the Bariti at Kokong and Kang who at times in the past were vassals of Bakwena and Bangwaketse.
During the 1830s the Bangwaketse Kgosi Sebego established himself at Lehututu and proceeded to subjugate the surrounding region. By all accounts he was a talented, but cruel, militarist: “Sebego opelo kebonye athelesetsa Matebele; oneile baba mmala wa thebe...Lomoreetseng lware moabi? Loko lorile molhasedi, gongwe lware be bua bogale”. The French missionary Lemue recorded an incident in which the Mongwaketse resorted to pure terror against Bangologa who refused to submit: “After having confiscated their goats, Sebego had the men, women and children put into their huts, which he then burned down.”
The Bechuanas had since 1832 been at enmity with the Matabele. During the native risings in 1878, the Bechuanas invaded Griqualand West, and were in turn subdued by British volunteers as far as the Molopo. When the British Government withdrew from Bechuanaland in 1880, the natives, being helpless, were left to the mercy of the Boers of the Transvaal, whose harsh treatment in 1882 and 1883 led to the Bechuanaland expedition in 1884.
Bechuana-land with the great Khama and Barotse-land with Lewanika, had chiefs of such importance and strength and capability that they carried very great weight and came to comprehensive agreement with H.M. Government. Africans in other parts of these Territories were at a disadvantage because they did not happen to be the descendants of persons who were, at that time, the subjects of peculiarly powerful chiefs.
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